Owlmaha: Take a deep breath

We bumped into Mike Ojala at the hotel this afternoon, and he looked as cool as the other side of the pillow. He said the Owls acknowledged their “flat” play during a team meeting, and that they were raring to go this evening. One would hope so.

The Owls have been preparing for this moment since pushing Tulane to the brink of elimination at the New Orleans Super Regional in 2005. When Wayne Graham turned the team over to the freshmen earlier that year, the move was designed to claim a national championship — or at least play for one. We understand that North Carolina is mighty talented, and the Tar Heels, too, want a title of their own. But how disappointing would it be for the juniors to leave Omaha empty-handed?

Anyway, we took a closer look at who Adam Warren has beaten this season: Garden-Webb, Temple, Towson, Davidson and UNC Wilmington. He’s also beaten Elon, East Carolina and Winthrop, and got one weekend start against Duke on April 14. And, unlike Rice starter Matt Langwell, he performed well when he came out of the pen in the Tar Heels’ CWS opener against Mississippi State.

As for the lineup, two things stand out. Diego Seastrunk will bat second for only the eighth time this season, while Jared Gayhart has been dropped to seventh. Aaron Luna, who committed one of the Owls’ two errors on Wednesday, will DH while Jess Buenger is back at second. We find both changes quite interesting.

North Carolina freshman first baseman Dustin Ackley has been moved up to fifth after batting seventh yesterday and responding with a game-breaking, three-run homer. Besides that, Mike Fox is rolling status quo. He has no reason for change.

So, this is it. Either we stay and go shopping tomorrow (we have run out of some essentials), or we’re on the first bird that we can find back to Houston. We’d like to dine at Omaha Prime and Mr. C’s once more, but that decision rests with the Owls.